Thursday, September 8, 2011

Miss Piggy's 'Modus Operandi'

The piece below leaves us all in no doubt about the management skills of ADWC's "Miss Piggy" (Jeanette Drissi). Her favourite approach, that of the backstabbing and two-faced terminator, is patently clear from this classic example of HCT management intimidation.

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Dear Dr. Hodge (Director, Abu Dhabi Women’s College)

I must request another meeting with you at your earliest convenience.

After our conversation of earlier this week, as well as earlier conversations with Ms Drissi, I felt better; knew that I would happily address any ADWC problems in semester two; and thought that all matters were at rest. Frankly, I had finally got the orientation that I had not had since September.

Then, yesterday morning, Ms Drissi called a meeting with Mr. Munns. Again, we three spoke with conviviality and I thought that the matter(s) was/were at rest. I, in fact, informed both supervisors of what I believe is low staff moral, owning to some of the problems that I had confronted. Please realize that I hear problems of the nature-described-below on a daily basis.

The following is my point-by-point rebuttal, in bold print. I must apprise you that none of the following was brought to my attention before Wednesday, 5 January 2011, after four months of employment. No complaints of this magnitude were ever made to me before now. On the contrary, I have had to self-direct myself as best I could since September. I have not had much support or direction since September, but, nonetheless, I earned a good administrative observation report, as well as good student evaluations. Moreover, I was shocked to receive the email below, given the good-natured conversation that I had with Mr. Munns and Ms Drissi.

January 11, 2011

Dear John,

Further to our meeting today, I am writing to express my concerns with regard to the issues highlighted. These illustrate a lack of professionalism on your part.

This was never brought up in any of our meetings.

Your behavior in terms of proctoring exams and other testing issues have shown serious breaches of test security.

Student classroom decorum at ADWC has been surprisingly negative ever since my arrival, especially for a tertiary institution. There were never any orientation sessions of what classroom rules should be, or that classroom management would even be necessary among young adults at college in a conservative country. I was astounded at the ADWC ‘culture’ which I walked into. Speaking with longer-serving teachers, many not very sanguine, I was told that ADWC student misbehavior is historic and endemic. Veteran teachers attest that ADWC student academic interest has become less, as behavior has become worse. I was given no classroom management instruction until I conversed with Ms Jo Probert, again not until January 2011, about what I should do, or what authority I would have in disciplining students.

Until Ms Drissi’s very late-in-the-semester appearance, no one ever informally observed any class which I taught - in fact, I thought management’s absence from my classes owed itself to their satisfaction with me. I took it to mean that the students had said that I was ‘nice,’ but taught well, and that this had somehow got back to management.

Laptops, surfing the net, earpieces, telephoning, texting and tardiness occur habitually by students in the ADWC classroom; even opened conversation as I instructed. Talking in Arabic during examinations has transpired previously even after I requested silence. Often my verbal requests go unheeded because there is too much extraneous noise in the classroom. At the moment of the above-referenced examination, four months of student classroom indecorum had already passed without so much as an ADWC management whimper!

Frankly, during my hiring process, “life” at ADWC was misrepresented to me. (1) I had no idea that I would be at the ‘desert’ campus.I thought that I would be in the city of Abu Dhabi, not a 45 minute bus ride away, unable to leave campus even to go to the pharmacy when I was ill.(2) I had no knowledge that I would have to commute nearly three hours daily, thus working a 12 to 13 hour day from household door back to household door.(3) I did not expect a lecturer’s schedule to be from 8 am to 5 pm mandatorily and daily. (3a) The work schedule, plus the commute, means that I get up at 5:30 am, and that I am not back in my home until 6:30 pm.(4) I was not told that the “settling-in-allowance,” in fact, was a loan, which until repaid, binds me to the ADWC in a form of peonage. Likewise, I did not expect to have to manage and to teach student behavior at a “college.”

The patented administrative response to date is that all information is on the ADWC computer “Portal.” One, this is not true. Two, the response confuses data with information. Can the information be readily located and meaningfully utilized? If not, it is only data which a newly arrived employee may not have time to cull through.In fact, after management’s misrepresentations, coupled with the 12 to 13 hour daily work schedule, I am too tired, and have too much work, to search the computer “Portal.”In an educative institution, where people matter, a computer should be no substitute for face-to-face orientation.At ADWC, the “Portal” is a gimmick for management who cannot be bothered.

The catch-all management retort, “It’s on the computer,” is merely a cover for poor managerial organization. It is also an excuse for not beginning the preparation of the newly arrived staff early enough. I requested that ADWC Human Resources (HR) bring me to Abu Dhabi as early as 20 August 2010, because I could foresee that I would not have enough time to settle and to prepare to lecture in a new university-level post. HR's response to me was, “Why do you want to come early?”

I was astounded that I could foresee five months into the future, to possible problems, even before having landed in the United Arab Emirates. What is flabbergasting to me is that ADWC could not. Perhaps HR's response, “Why do you want to come early?” owes itself to the fact that ADWC management’s summer holiday could not be interrupted. Could ADWC management not foresee that only one week would not be enough time to prepare for college-level classes in a new country?This showed me, even before I was in-country, that ADWC management does not care until there is a problem, at which time the desired solution is the issuing of warning letters and dismissals.

You have marked students’ work in a way that shows little regard for the criteria in place.

I was only given a criterion after I asked for one. There was never a staff meeting in which all were told at once, “Do this, do that.” I was given a criterion confected by another teacher and instructed “to use it, change it, or use my own.” Thus, I ask, what criteria were in place which all staff was uniformly apprised of? My answer is ‘none.’ In turn, I made the decision to be popular with my students, purvey knowledge, and to help as many students to pass as I possibly could. I determined that no student would complain to management about me.

This should not be taken as cheating or as having little regard for criteria. It should be taken as having academically weak, disinterested and poorly disciplined students whom I had ‘to win over’ in order to avoid their complaints to my supervisors; student complaints that are legion and legend in the Arabian Gulf.

An ADWC veteran teacher, with experience at the ADWC sister college in Dubai, as well as Abu Dhabi, told me that ADWC managers never know which complaining student has ‘connections’ or ‘power.’As a result, since ADWC management will not risk itself or its salaries, and the students might be connected or powerful, thus it is the teachers who must be to blame.Besides, if students did not have to complain about teachers, then ADWC management would not have to be bothered…so goes ADWC-‘logic.’

The lesson I observed (as a drop-in) was one for which no instructions were given to the class and no teaching was taking place.

Ms Drissi dropped in on a lesson after Christmas holiday, at the end of the academic calendar. The teachers’ union under which I worked at ‘home’ would never have tolerated any observation at that moment of the academic calendar. It would have been a flagrant labor violation, dismissed in any labor arbitration process.Will someone explain to me why Ms Drissi was on holiday for two weeks prior to her ‘drop-in’ observation?No one else was on holiday.The teaching staff worked through Christmas!

Moreover, Ms Drissi arrived after the beginning of class.Instructions had already been given.The students had already informed me that the semester was over; that they did not want to do any class…home…or extra work; rather they were desirous of preparing quietly for final examinations. They reminded me that I had completed the requirements of the course outlines; in the case of reading classes, I completed the course outlines ahead-of-schedule.Of course, the students did not work quietly. However, a lack of classroom quiet-study was in keeping with the low level of dedication, and high level of academic disinterest, which many ADWC students had exhibited since September 2010.During this five month period, management said nothing to me and I got along with the students well.

To my credit, during the Ms Drissi’s ‘drop-in’ observation, I worked with low-mark and failing-students to finish their late work in order to boost their grades or to assure that they passed the course. Of course, no mention of my dedication to these ‘weak’ students is made.

Only Mr. Stephen Munns observed me this semester and I received a favorable evaluation from him. Additionally, the students observed me every day and, according to Ms Drissi, their student evaluations of me were high.

I know the Arabian Gulf well.You teach a little bit and keep people happy.ADWC management functions the same way.You never know which quibbling student has ‘connections’ or ‘power.’You do not over-challenge or over-discipline ‘Gulf’ students.We teachers and managers are foreigners.It is the students’ country.This philosophy is used by ADWC managers to keep their jobs.Why does ADWC management not extend the same courtesy to its teachers?

You have taken a day off work without notifying the office when you had interview duty and exam marking for the entire day.

Guilty. On Wednesday, 5 January 2011, when management’s dissatisfaction with me was first demonstrated (Although nothing had been ‘wrong’ for four months!), I was admittedly so fearful and angry that, the following day, Thursday, 6 January 2011, I sought labor, legal and employment advice in expectation of being immediately dismissed from ADWC.Rumors abound about ADWC’s instantaneous dismissals.Who can be thousands of kilometers from home and suddenly without an income or lodgings?

You did not come in for part of a day when you had lessons timetabled, although you were not sick.

I suppose that this is in reference to one day, perhaps three months ago. I had ADWC mandated business, in the morning, in the ‘city’ with other ADWC employees. I expected ADWC to provide transport back to campus afterwards. I was never informed that I would be responsible for paying for a taxi cab to the Khaleefa, ‘desert’ campus, 45 minutes from Abu Dhabi city. Another employee and I attempted to arrange ADWC transport from the ‘city’ to the ‘desert’ campus. On two occasions the ADWC transport was canceled by ADWC.

While awaiting the transport, before and during its two cancellations, I went to open a bank account. Even after more than 30 days in-country, I was still carrying in my pocket thousands of dirhams daily, both my settling-in ‘loan,’ as well as a first month’s salary. No one in management ever showed any interest in this ‘issue.’ In fact, I was misinformed by ADWC and told to await the issuance of my Emirati identification card (ID) before I could open a bank account.

While awaiting ADWC transport, I walked to the bank ‘just to see what would happen.’At the bank, I was told that ADWC was wrong; that my passport was good enough to open a bank account; that I should not wait for an Emirati ID because it would take too long; and that it was dangerous to walk about with so much cash in one’s pockets for 30 days or more.I willing informed Ms Drissi of all the above.She said that in future that I was expected to pay for transport even if I was on ADWC business.No, there are no reimbursements.That was at least three months ago.This issue has not been spoken about since then…except for now.

You appeared frequently unclear about what to do this semester, due to not reading emails properly.

How can ADWC management determine if I read ‘properly’? Newly hired teachers whom I have overheard, and to whom I have spoken, feel that the ADWC electronic mail ‘system’ is abused. Thirty ‘emails’ in the period of 50 minutes (I counted once!), especially at the beginning of one’s first semester, are only relevant to someone who is already familiar with the institution.A ‘new-hire’ is left reading disjointed data with acronyms, abbreviations and names that have no points of reference. Imagine:We do not expect our students to do such because we know that reading disjointed data with no prior references is not an effective learning tool. ADWC management subjects its newly hired teachers to a confounding and confusing computer practice.If we teachers dared to relate to our students in such fashion, our lesson plans would immediately be called into question.

This conduct is having an adverse affect on your colleagues and the department’s overall performance.

My conduct in no manner adversely affected my colleagues. On the contrary, I am well liked; disliked perhaps by only one member of staff out of a group of 50 or more. In particular, I am well liked by my students – something that I made a priority. If it were not for the many years that I have already taught, there is no way that I could have literally improvised, as ADWC obliged me to do, throughout the first semester of 2010-2011. ADWC should express its gratitude to me that I did so well for it, despite so little assistance that it offered me.

Please accept this as a formal written warning, and understand that any subsequent performance failings will result in a failure to pass probation.

I will happily leave ADWC, effective 6 February 2011, if I am granted a letter of release and liberation from my “settling-in-allowance”-cum-debt of 30,000 dirhams. I may want to remain in the United Arab Emirates, but I absolutely do not need to work at ADWC. Frankly, ADWC must decide if it wants me.

He was in fact a very good instructor. His failure was that he spoke back to Miss Piggy and the CLAW. Director Hodge protected him for as long as she could but once offended the CLAW would not stop. She put her Bum Boy Martyn to work on the problem but he could get the instructor dismissed. She then went to the VC who ordered the Provost to dismiss the instructor. To quote Dylan, Drummond asked where do you want this killing done? Drummond then undercut his "friend" Dr. Hodge and dismissed the instructor. while she was in charge of ADWC, she was the last to know. Drummond, his BFF the CLAW, and Rudi acted to remove the offending instructor.

It is enough to make a heart of stone weep. Good teachers are lost to HCT while ill-serving "managers" remain. It is all to the detriment of the students. HCT exists to serve its managers,not its students. Is there any hope Sheikh Nayan Bin Mubarak Al Nayan might wake up one day and realize how badly he has been served by his self-serving directors, associate directors, provosts, deans, vice-chancellor, senior directors...? At the same time, he might realize how well HCT has been served by the majority of its teachers despite the efforts of awful management to undermine them in their daily efforts in challenging classrooms.

As juicy as this new, shall we say, distraction, may be...let's all not forget the tragic mother of that poor crippled man who is at the nexus of all of this kerfuffle!

Drissi's bad, but merely an axe for that poor, poor lady over there to yield!

I hope that Mr. Hamilton came somewhere near being made whole. One hopes that he had the good sense that Steve had and "pulled a runner" when he was in the best financial position to leave that gory place.

"Pulling a runner" from the HCT! Hah! That's a joke. Would anybody refer to anyone as a "runner" if he were to flee a burning house?

The scars in my back left by Miss Piggy ached as I read this. Never in my entire career have I encountered a supervisor as unprofessional and vindictive as she. She is the very definition of two-faced.

Let me be perfectly clear on this issue which has been glossed over for some time now. Mr. Munns is second only to Ms. Drissi! I support him completely! The only reason that he continues to "act" as it may, is that he and "Jo the Pro" continue to act that they're not the hottest thing to sizzle at ADWC since I turned off the AC at the school while the teachers were on summer holidays!

When I came up with the name "Miss Piggy" for this two-faced backstabber nearly 10 years ago, I had no idea it would be so successful. What she's doing to you guys at ADWC now she did to me and others then. She's a serial backstabber. I will never forget the way I was treated by this disgusting person and never forgive her for it. And what I read about Steve Munns hasn't changed either--a truly decent and sincere guy who no doubt sees what we see in Miss Piggy but must live in fear every day lest he cross her and receive one of her daggers in the back just as I did. Can you imagine what he really thinks of her?

Munns is no better! He stands by and lets this crap happen. He's too damn interested in keeping his position at the trough to be bothered by this crap! When one of the more vocal of the bunch that got trimmed a year ago stood before him and insisted that it was double-faced to have slogans such as "transparency", student-centred learning" and other such crap stenciled into the glass, he was, reportedly unmoved and didn't make an effort to disagree.

Thanks for this very enlightening blob. I was considering a job offer for HCT and decided to do some internet research first to find out the most important information -what current employees think. I don't know who all these characters are that you mention but I get an impression of overwhelming negativity from this blog and some other websites I visited. ZU and AUS and UAEU sound like much better options.

And now, with the best Emirati students gone elsewhere, the very worst students in the UAE with the very lowest CEPA scores will be accepted at HCT beginning tomorrow. The theme of the HCT conference was Raising the Bar, so the worst high school graduates would be excluded. The theme of this week's reality check in the colleges is Lower the Bar so far we can take anybody with a tiny trace of cerebral activity and a pulse, so that we can receive FUNDING on the 20th day of the semester when the national audit guys count the number of registered students. If all these substitute students fail the HEATE or IELTS later, who cares. We got the money for them.

That's the Provost's rationale. and the VC's. Those two guy can work together when it come to cash intake, whatever about other matters.

In the past, when the weakest students were accepted, they left with a certificate or diploma, and sometimes even progressed to a higher diploma. Now, with the raising of the bar, the weakest will waste their time and leave with nothing. Last year, HCT paid an enormous amount of money to commission a new exam HEATE. Fewer than 50 students in the entire 17 college Foundations program passed the exam. A comment not on the students but on the stupdity of the guys in management who are so out of touch with our students that they endorse the least appropriate exam in the world. One would love a public disclosure on the costs of running this exam, the commissions paid, etc.

BEHOLD the almighty 'Miss Piggy', the Winged Porcine One, CORPULENT and CORRUPT, descending from the VAPITUDES of the ineluctable to SHED LIGHT upon the TRANSLUCENT MEMBRANE of the petty wrangling with which YOU HCT IDIOTS fill the MANGLED HULK of your PATHETIC EXISTENCE!

BEHOLD the bogus 'manager' with neither qualifications nor aptitude!

BEHOLD the back-stabbing two-faced professional vulture, and cease your own 'professional' PREENING, your expat POSTURING, and your envious PLOTTING, all vile products of the CANT- and codswallop-inspired INDOLENCE and INDIFFERENCE that keeps you all IN THRALL to your ORIENTAL PAYMASTERS!

Indeed, THERE ARE NONE SO entrammeled that the architrave shall not ENLIGHTEN them. 'Miss Piggy' shall ENLIGHTEN us all!!

I interviewed with the Claw several years ago (and some non-entity who couldn't string a coherent sentence together). She came across as both condescending and uninformed, a tough combination I would have thought. Did I get the job? No, am I working elsewhere in the GCC for twice the money (and a private office) with a "real university", (if you guessed Qatar, you'd be correct) yes.

Directors – I have just received a number of final settlement forms to sign which trouble me greatly. Most of these employees:

- Have accumulated leave of 20 or more days

- Are working through June 16 or June 23

- Most are “general interest terminations”, terminations or non-renewals

Why on earth we would not manage down this leave completely stumps me. I refuse to sign these liberal “going away” leave payouts for these employees.

Please take immediate actions to advise any and all departing parties that meet these specifications that today is their LAST WORKING DAY. In that way we can manage this excessive leave down a bit. I know that there are occasional exceptions but overall I view this as sloppy management.

So much rubbish: so much truth. The fact is, nobody knows what to do in a system that has clearly lost all vision from on high, is in day-to-day fear of TK and his (claw) proxies, is being asked to turn perfectly nice hairdressers and check-out girls into academics and managers while forgetting that the staff's motivation has never been anything other than benefitting from a life better than that they can get elsewhere, Staff give up human/gender/orientation rights, a true justice system, a meaningful vote, due process, and any real sense of self-respect... for what? it used to be a nice, easy life and money. Now...? Teachers of course care about their students as much as they ever did.... that hasn't changed. What has changed is any sense that teachers are valued as anything more than blood-sucking useless parasites who must be kept in their place and systematically demeaned and demoralised in case they show up their incompetent and amoral "superiors". It is wrong to thing it is all TK, all HCT. just get used to the new world order: teachers are the new toilet cleaners, with no say about society's hygiene habits. Tell your kids to train as plumbers and stop sending them to university to study useless crap. WE are the problem!! Stop being such bloggy wusses and stand up: not for rights (we don't have any) but for professional and personal dignity. For example: do NOT attend conferences on Fridays without assurances that Muslim staff will be expected to attend too. Just see where that gets them....

Many good points, well expressed S. However, you are deluded, S, if you think you were well thought of by your colleagues. You were considered a liability, a professional incompetent, and quite frankly.... a wierdo. You offered nothing positive to other staff who worked their butts off trying to help you get through the admittedly ridiculous and crazy system. Far from "liking" you, I am afraid other teachers had constant complaints from shared students about you which put us all in a very difficult position. Had I been in the position to do so, you would have been sacked within 2 months of arriving, not after an entire academic year. Find another job.

You asked for another email and one follows but first a little background. ADWC is full of Friends of Vice Chancellor Kamali (FVCK). They are often trying to outdo one another to see who can be the best FVCK. The CLAW normally wins which is why the Provost has become her best friend. Mark ”My wife wants a condo and I just want a drink” Drummond was attempting to gain greater favor with the VC when he sent out the above email ordering immediate dismissals. When word came back that it might be leaked to The National, he freaked. He wanted to be the favorite FVCK and this could doom him. So he sent the email below blaming the Directors for not understanding the above email. This is why we love him, enjoy:From: Dr. Marshall Drummond Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 11:01 AMTo: HCT-COLLEGE-DIRECTORS; Christine Luscombe-WhyteSubject: managing leaveDirectors – there are a number of employees complaining to the press about being “forced” to use accumulated leave prior to separation. My note to you was a general critique about management of accumulated leave. Some of the departing ones had 40+ days of accumulated leave – which to me is unacceptable. In cases where teaching faculty accumulated leave during the Spring Term and have not been able to utilize it – my suggestion to you was to work with them and try to get them to agree to leave early and thus use some of the accumulated leave. If they absolutely refuse then you will have to honor their leave balance but you should have this conversation with each and every one of them. From the reports coming out today I think that some of those conversations have been muddled.At any rate – you need to always be on top of accumulated leave balances for all employees and be certain that you subordinates are working with faculty and staff to plan to use any and all accumulated leave. We should not get surprised at the end-of-service by demands to pay out extraordinary amounts of unused leave.Mark

Well, the end of service benefit is NOT part of the hct budget, it is not escrowed or accrued, and the hct is constantly blind sided when staff leave and they have to find the money! Hence the scramble to screw folks out of their dues at the last minute. And they call themselves a business college? Their accounting is from the dark ages and why is that not a surprise!?

If I were a long term employee with a significant end of service balance due me, I would be very concerned about it being paid. It's been discussed in higher circles of the HCT that there may be a unilateral "amendment" to the pay out process.

In other words, they ain't gonna pay it., knowing full well that a court case could take months or even years, with you living at your own expense.

I remember sitting in my coveted corner cubicle at the desert AD campus thinking of my future AWAY from that mess, the HCT, and colleagues coming up to me with big smiles on their faces asking how the HELL I got such a good deal of getting all of my EOS, plus a release from that desert hell.

At the time, I didn't have a full grasp on how horribly that Tubby and his hench(wo)men had miscalulated! I got out with ALL of mine...I wonder about the human trauma/drama I left behind...

Erm...thank you Tubby and the human excreta that you employ to do your bidding?

We are extremely grateful for the post above. It should come as no surprise that you are all, ALL, a bunch of losers and rightly should be grateful for our employment of you. With your countries in economic turmoil, where else are you going to get jobs?

Although our home countries may well be undergoing economic upheaval in general, there are a few areas that are making a positive display of things.

These include, notably, the market for pre-university courses for international students. Students from the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and more importantly China) are flooding in to the UK, for example, as they perceive a UK Bachelors or Masters degree to be well worth the time and expense.

Recent reports show that the US is the first choice for smart Chinese students with the money (up to $30,000 per year) to pay for their education, with the UK coming second. And we're talking about the potential for tens of thousands of Chinese student per year here!

In short, the international student market is bucking the domestic trend, and now is a very good time to get a foot on the gravy train. The organisation that I'm working for set up its teaching unit only last year (January 2010), but has already expanded ten-fold.

OK, so the salary's not the same as in the UAE, but you actually get real students and proper managers - a priceless mixture!

Let the joyous news be spreadThe Wicked Old Pig at last is dead!Ding Dong! The Wicked Pig is dead!Sing it high,Sing it low.Let them knowThe Wicked Pig is dead!

I hope she is now suffering the same terror she inflicted upon me and countless others. I hope she is lying awake at night worried sick about how she will support her family. What comes around goes around.